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Lara Croft
Lara Croft is the main protagonist and heroine of Tomb Raider franchise. She is presented as a beautiful, intelligent, and athletic English archaeologist-adventuress who ventures into ancient, hazardous tombs and ruins around the world. Created by a team at UK developer Core Design that included Toby Gard, the character first appeared in the 1996 video game Tomb Raider. Story First Timeline Lara Croft, daughter of Lord Henshingly Croft , was born in England on February 14th 1968. She was raised to be an aristocrat from birth, and had lived in luxury aloof from the world at large. From the age of 3 Lara began her learning with a private tutor. Lara attended Wimbledon High School for girls at the age of 11. At 16 her parents decided she should broaden her education by studying at Gordonstoun, one of Britain's most prominent boarding schools. One day Lara came across a copy of National Geographic on the hall table. The front cover featured a familiar name, the Professor Werner Von Croy. A respected archaeologist, Von Croy had once lectured at Lara's school to pupils & parents alike. The experience had a profound effect on Lara, triggering a desire for travel to remote locations in search of adventure. In some ways Von Croy had become an inspirational figure for Lara. As Lara read further, she learned that Von Croy was currently preparing for an archaeological tour across Asia, culminating in a potential new discovery to be made in Cambodia. Unable to pass up this opportunity, Lara burst into the room, thrust the article in front of her parents & without hesitation demanded she accompany Von Croy on his expedition. Lord Croft could hardly disagree that travel was an education in itself. As Lara argued the case further, he found himself walking over to the desk & penning a letter to Von Croy. He Introduced himself as an influential society figure and offered financial assistance in exchange for his daughter's place on the expedition. Von Croy's reply assured the Henshingly Croft's that the territories were friendly and that he had ample experience to look after both his & Lara's well being. Lara's company as an assistant would be welcome, as was the offer of such a generous cheque. He remembered Lara from his lecture - her incessant yet insightful questions had made quite an impression upon him. And so it was agreed by all that Lara would accompany Von Croy for the duration of the tour. After attending a Swiss finishing school at the age of 21, Lara's marriage into wealth had seemed assured, until one day, on her way home from a skiing holiday, her chartered plane crashed deep into the heart of the Himalayan Mountains. Lara probably should have died there, as most people would have, instead she learned how to depend on her wits to stay alive in hostile conditions a world away from her sheltered upbringing. Two weeks later when she walked into the village of Tokakeriby her experiences had had a profound effect on her and in that process transformed herself as well. Her Himalayan odyssey was both miraculous and enlightening, as the young woman not only survived, but gained a perspective on herself and the world that made her past appear shallow and naive. Out of the darkness of her ordeal, she saw her future reflected in a different light. She felt profoundly that there was more for her in this life than the coddled existence that had become her numbing habit. She realized that she was only truly alive when she was travelling alone. Over the eight following years she acquired an intimate knowledge of ancient civilizations across the globe. Her family soon disowned their prodigal daughter, hoping she would wed The Earl of Farrington. She turned to writing to fund her trips. Famed for discovering several ancient sites of profound archaeological interest and gaining some notoriety for having slain an actual Bigfoot in North America, she made a name for herself by publishing travel books & detailed journals of her exploits. Lara Croft became the seeker of truths, both large and small, and in that pursuit she continues to this day. In 1993, Lara is contacted by an American named Larson Conway, who works for the wealthy businesswoman Jacqueline Natla, owner of Natla Technologies . Natla ask her to go on an expedition to recover a mysterious artefact called the Scion from the lost tomb of Qualopec , in the mountains of Peru, Lara first refused, but accepted after Natla told her the path of the expedition to access the tomb, thinking it would be a great adventure. After successfully retrieving the object, she is attacked by Larson who attempts to claim it. She beats him then questions him, learning that the artefact she has is only a fragment and that a man named Pierre Dupont has been hired by Natla to collect the rest. Lara breaks into Natla Technologies to find out Pierre's whereabouts. She discovers a medieval monk's journal, which reveals the depths of an ancient monastery of St. Francis in Greece to house the tomb of Tihocan , a ruler of Atlantis, along with a second piece of the Scion. Travelling to the monastery, Lara descends through an expansive underground complex, pursued and attacked throughout by Pierre Dupont. At the tomb of Tihocan, Lara recovers the second piece of the Scion and finally kills Pierre. An inscription inside the tomb states that Tihocan was "one of the two just rulers" of Atlantis. When Lara joins the two pieces of the Scion, she receives a vision of the three Atlantean rulers and their respective pieces of the Scion. One of them utilises it to create a mutant breed, but the other two confront her, and take her piece of the Scion. Then Atlantis is struck by a fireball from the skies, and the three pieces of the Scion become scattered as the civilisation is destroyed. One of them goes to Egypt, Lara's next destination. Lara travels to the City of Khamoon, a temple complex in Egypt that houses the final fragment. Here she battles the fierce mutants seen in her vision, and is once again confronted by Larson, this time in a battle to the death. She then takes the final piece of the Scion from the underground sanctuary. Upon leaving the tomb, she is ambushed by Natla and her henchmen, who steal the three artefacts and nearly kill her. Having escaped, Lara sneaks onto their boat, which takes her to a remote island where mining operations of Natla Technologies have partially exposed the Great Pyramid of Atlantis . After making her way through the mines dispatching Natla's goons and the mutant-infested interior of Atlantis, she crosses the way of a mutant skinless strangely look like her and copying all of her movements, although this doppelganger was not a threat at this time, Lara get rid of it. Lara finaly reaches the heart of the pyramid chamber, where the complete Scion has been fused together as a source of power. Touching it, Lara receives another vision, where Natla is revealed as the previously seen third ruler of Atlantis. She betrays her co-rulers by abusing the power of the Scion for genetic experimentation, and as punishment is locked in a stasis cell by Qualopec and Tihocan, her resting place until the prologue of the game. Natla enters the chamber and confronts Lara; having reclaimed the artefacts, she attempts to restore her former power with an army of mutants. Lara throws her into a chasm, apparently killing her and confronts her newest mutant abomination. She then destroys the Scion, starting a chain reaction of collapse in the pyramid. As she makes her way out she meets Natla a final time, now mutated and winged. After beating her, Lara flees the island just as the place is destroyed. A year later, when Lara investigates the legend of the Dagger Of Xian, she is attacked by a thug who claims to work fora man named Marco Bartoli, a Venetian Mafia leader who has an obsession with the ancient lore of the Dagger. After traveling to Venice, Lara makes her way through Bartoli's hideout and an opera house where Bartoli's men are plotting a heist. Lara manages to follow Bartoli aboard his aeroplane, but she is knocked unconscious before she can confront him. The plane is headed toward an oil platform. At the site, the cult of Xian have killed all the rig's staff, dumping the bodies into the sea and are carrying out excavations on a sunken ship called the Maria Doria , a luxury ocean liner which was owned by Marco's Father that sank two years ago. When Lara regains consciousness, she learns that the crew have taken her weapons and equipment. She retrieves her weapons and makes her way through the oil rig. She later learns from an imprisoned Tibetan monk, Brother Chan , that the shipwreck carries an ancient Tibetan artefact called the Seraph . Lara dives alongside a submersible and arrives at the shipwreck. There she successfully retrieves the Seraph. Having obtained this, she heads towards the monastery via aeroplane. As Lara heads to the Tibetan monastery the plane suffers engine failure and crash lands. As the plane is skidding along the ground she manages to escape using a parachute and arrives at the Barkhang Monastery in Tibet. There she is helped by monks in confronting the thugs of Marco Bartoli. With the help of the monks, she finds and uses five prayer wheels to open a door that leads to a room to hold the Seraph. She continues her journey inside the catacombs to find the Talion , a key used to open the door which leads to the dagger. After confronting several yetis, she recovers the Talion. The FMV cutscene shows Lara exiting the caves. She takes off in a jeep while a guard is patrolling outside. Another jeep with two guards follows Lara, but she manages to escape. Back in China, Lara opens the door to the chamber holding the Dagger. Before she reaches the artefact, however, Lara is plunged into the catacombs beneath the Great Wall. After climbing a staircase with blades, she makes her way to a place with green floating islands and warriors which come alive when triggered. She finally moves to the room where she witnesses Bartoli drive the dagger into his heart, transforming himself into a dragon. Lara manages to temporarily render the creature unconscious and pulls the dagger from Bartoli's heart. Soon after this, the whole tomb begins to collapse, and a part of Great Wall is destroyed. Lara returns home and is cleaning the dagger when she hears an alarm going off. She discovers the remainder of Marco Bartoli's men have tracked her down to England and are planning to invade her mansion. Luckily she overpowers them. Second Timeline Lara Croft was born in Surrey's Parkside hospital to Lady Amelia Croft and the notorious archeologist Lord Richard Croft, the late Earl of Abbingdon. Between the ages of three and six, she attended the Abbingdon Girls School, where it quickly became clear that she was an exceptionally gifted child. At the age of nine she survived a plane crash in the Himalayas that took the life of her mother. In perhaps the first story of her prodigious indomitability, she somehow survived a solo ten-day trek across the Himalayan mountains, one of the most hostile environments on the planet. The story goes that when she arrived in Katmandu she went to the nearest bar and made a polite tele-phone call to her father asking if it would be convenient for him to come and pick her up. For six years following the plane crash, Lara rarely left her father’s side, traveling around the world from one archeological dig site to another. During this period she was ostensibly given a standard education from private tutors, but it would probably be more accurate to say she was her father’s full time apprentice. When Lara was fifteen, her father went missing in Cambodia. Extensive searches by the authori-ties and Lara herself turned up human remains that could not definitively be identified. Since Lord Croft’s body was not officially recovered, Lara could not directly inherit the Croft title and Lara was thrust into a bitter family feud over control of the Abbingdon estates with her uncle Lord Errol Croft. Lara eventually won the legal battle, and took possession of her inheritance but at the cost of a deep rift in the Croft family that left her estranged from her living relatives. Third Timeline Movies Version Description Lara Croft is depicted as an athletic woman; she has brown eyes and hair, frequently kept in a plait or ponytail. The character's classic costume is a turquoise sleeveless tank top, light brown shorts, calf-high boots, and long white socks. Accessories include fingerless gloves, a backpack, a utility belt with holsters on either side, and two pistols. The video game sequels introduced new outfits designed for different environments, such as underwater and cold weather. In the later games, Croft wears a crop top, camouflage pants and black or light brown shirts. When exploring, she often carries two pistols, but has used other weaponry throughout the series. Lara Croft is fluent in several languages. Game manuals describe the character as the Wimbledon, London-born daughter of the fictional Lord Richard Croft. She was raised as an aristocrat and betrothed to the fictitious Earl of Farringdon. Lara Croft attended the Scottish boarding school Gordonstoun and a Swiss finishing school. A plane crash left the character stranded in the Himalayas for two weeks; the experience spurred her to shun her former life and seek other adventures around the world. Croft wrote books and other published works based on her exploits as a mercenary, big-game hunter, and master thief. The story was later changed to include her mother in the plane crash. While searching for shelter against the elements, Lara Croft witnesses her mother vanish after tampering with an ancient sword. Her father disappears in search of his wife. Creation and Evolution Core Design Core Design created Lara Croft as the main character of the video games Tomb Raider, which began developing in 1993''Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition 2008, Guinness'', 2008-03-11, 58–59 p. (ISBN 978-1-904994-21-3) . The chief designer Toby Gard had in mind five different appearances before arriving at the final stage of the appearance of the character. He initially considered a male lead character with a whip and a hat. The co-founder of Core Design, Jeremy Smith, said character was a derivative of Indiana Jones, and asked for more originality. Gard decided that a female character would have more impact from his point of view. He also shared his desire to counter stereotypical female characters, which he characterized as "bimbos" or "dominatrices". Smith was skeptical of the fact that a woman is a main character, especially because few contemporary games had used a woman as a main. He finally put his trust in the idea of Gard. Inspired by pop artist Neneh Cherry and comic character Tank Girl, Gard tried different appearances, from a muscular woman to a Nazi militant aspect. He settled on the idea of a tough South American with a braid named Laura Cruz. Eidos direction preferred a more "UK friendly" name, and selected Lara Croft from similar-sounding English names they had found in a phone directory. With the name changed, the character's story was also changed to a British origin. One concern of Gard was to animate the character realistically, an aspect he felt to have been sidelined by the industry in this time. He then sacrificed quick animations in favor of realistic movements, thinking that players appreciate the character more easily. In the first Tomb Raider, the model of the three-dimensional character of Lara Croft is made of around 230 polygons. Graphical limits at the time required the removal of the braid of the character model, and was added to the model for the following games. While in the process of adjusting the model, Gard accidentally increased the size of the character's breast of 150%. After seeing the increase, the rest of the team had a debate over whether to keep the change or not. Core Design, employed Shelley Blond to dubbing Lara Croft after the game entered the beta phase of development. Gard left Core Design after completing Tomb Raider, citing a lack of creative freedom and control omnipresent of marketing on the ideas he developed (especially Lara Croft). Core Design improved and modified the character in each episode. The developers of Tomb Raider II increased the number of polygons in the character model and added more realistic curves to its appearance. Other changes included new outfits and operations. Core Design had planned to allow the character to crawl as a new option, but the idea had not led until the installment of Tomb Raider III. Actress Judith Gibbins took over the responsibility of dubbing and remained until Tomb Raider III. In the third game, developers have again increased the number of polygons in the 3D model of Lara Croft to 300, and introduced more possibilities in gameplay. For Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation, the developers wanted to reintroduce the character to players and placed a passage with a much younger Lara Croft. Core Design improved character movement to allow more interaction with the environment, like walking on ropes and kicking open doors. The character model was altered to more realistic proportions, and Jonell Elliott gave back the job of Lara's voice to Gibbins. During early development, the team felt that Core Design had used all of his creativity. Feeling the series lacking in innovations, Core Design decided to kill the character, and made Lara Croft trapped in a sinkhole in the final scene of the game. The next installment, Tomb Raider: Chronicles , describes the past of Lara Croft through flashbacks of her friends. The game introduced sneak attacks, which have led to the next game, Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness.While the original development team working on the fifth installment, Core Design attributed to a new team the development of The Angel of Darkness for PlayStation 2. Anticipating of innovative changes from next generation consoles, Adrian Smith, co-founder of Core Design, wanted to reinvent the character to keep the rhythm with technology constantly being improved. Core Design conducted market research, including fan polls, to help the development of The Angel of Darkness. The development team had felt they could not alter the character and decided instead to opt for a situation differing from previous games. PlayStation 2 allowed more maneuvers and a more detailed character model, the number of polygons in the model of Lara up to 4400. The team tried to add more fights with bare hands to introduce Lara Croft as a peerless warrior as in her biography. The motion control went to a directional pad to a control analog stick, to improve the precision. After the original team finished Tomb Raider: Chronicles, they joined the development of The Angel of Darkness. Excessive content, exceeding the transit period, and the desire to Eidos to coincide with the release of the game with the Tomb Raider movie in 2003, did result of a poorly designed game, Lara Croft was brought back to life without explanation and with a lack of accuracy to control the character. Crystal Dynamics The Angel of Darkness is poorly received by critics, prompting Eidos - fearing of financial troubles from another unsuccessful game - they give the development of future titles to Crystal Dynamics. The development team of the Legacy of Kain series began working on a new title, Tomb Raider: Legend, and Toby Gard agrees to cooperate as a consultant. The team reconsidered the brand value of the franchise as well as the protagonist. Chip Blundell, vice president of brand Eidos, said that the designers understood that fans saw the character and brand as their own, rather than belong to Eidos. With this priority, the team then reorganized the franchise and the character, in order to focus on the aspects of the original game. The story of a trilogy, starting with The Angel of Darkness was abandoned and a new plot was created for Legend. Crystal Dynamics focused on the credibility rather than realism to redevelop the character, giving decisions on the question "What could Lara do? "And offering more freedom for her actions. The team has improved the movements of Lara Croft, making them more fluid and in continuity. The animations has also been upgraded, so that the character could better interact with environmental objects. The developers introduced a feature that changes the clothes and skin of the character, making them wet after swimming and dirty after a roll on the ground. Responding to criticisms directed towards the control of the character in The Angel of Darkness, Crystal Dynamics changed control of the "skeleton" of Lara Croft to make the best experience of a third-person shooter game. The developers have also introduced maneuvers of Close Quarter Combat. Crystal Dynamics updated the character model to add more realism, but retained his caricatured design. The account of polygons jumped to more than 9800, and more attention has been put in place to lip sync the character, as well as facial expressions, to enable dynamic responses to in-game events. During the redesign of the character's appearance, Crystal Dynamics has improved hairstyles, wardrobe and accessories of Lara Croft. Her top was replaced by a V T-shirt, and her body became more muscular, her braid was shelved in favor of a ponytail. Crystal Dynamics retained the changes in Legend, for the game Tomb Raider: Anniversary, a remake of the first game, the company has made some minor changes (such as the details of the model character). During the renewal of the original game, the designers aimed to represent deeper emotions. Crystal Dynamics focused on the character's desire to achieve her personal aim, reaching the climax where she must kill one of the antagonists. The team used this death to show the guilt of Lara Croft after the murder, and to show that killing a person is a difficult choice. Tomb Raider: Underworld follows the plot started in Legend. Crystal Dynamics used new technology to improve the character for the seventh generation console, which allows for more realistic graphics. The accumulation of dust and wet clothing has been altered to be in real time and change in the environment of the whole game. To display a more natural appearance, the developers added spherical harmonics to provide indirect lighting in game objects like Lara Croft. The character model was more complex and detailed than previous ones, and used a skeletal animation to portray believable movement. The developers have also improved the facial model of Lara Croft by increasing the number of polygons, bones used in the animation skeleton, and graphical shaders in the face to add more details and capacities of expression. For adding to the realism, the hair has been created from a simulation of a real-time material, but they are pulled back, so they do not fly around Lara Croft during dangerous maneuvers. The body size was increased and the character's chest has been reduced for more realistic proportions. The developers tried to redefine Lara Croft's actions by asking what would be the character abilities according to them. While previous games used the movements of animated characters by hand, Underworld introduced an animation based on motion capture for a more fluid, realistic movement and facial expressions.The stuntwoman and Olympic gold medalist Heidi Moneymaker was the actress of motion capture, and advised the designers on the movements. Animators have adjusted and merged recorded animations, to create uniform transitions between separate movements and simultaneous combinations. Mergers and additional animations gave the character more flexible movement. Actions were nested to allow multitasking, like shooting on two separate targets with one hand while the other holds an object in the environment. Other additions were included for close combat attacks as contextual and climbing maneuvers. Crystal Dynamics wanted to ensure that the visual appearance of the character remains the same for the Xbox 360 to the PlayStation 3, although the systems uses different techniques. Cultural Impact References Croft, Lara Croft, Lara Croft, Lara Croft, Lara Croft, Lara Croft, Lara Croft, Lara Croft, Lara Croft, Lara Croft, Lara Croft, Lara Croft, Lara Croft, Lara Croft, Lara Croft, Lara